Backers' Beta Tester

I asked if anybody objected to me showing that map. Nobody did. (Of course, I asked when nobody was on, but why split hairs?), so here's an upscaled version of the map I added unofficial political borders and capitals to.

Backers' Beta Tester

Hey. How's it going?
It's been a while since the last work stream, hasn't it? A lot of people have joined the community in that time. So for those of you who don't know me, hi! I'm Stunthead! I recap the streams. My recaps are based on the YouTube uploads, so go here if you want to follow the time stamps to a specific moment. Without any further ado, let's tackle...

MANE 6 WORK STREAM #18 - JAN 31

0:00 - So right off the bat, we should establish a few things. A LOT has been changed since the last work stream. I'm not going to go into detail about the differences in the game between this stream and the last one (because, y'know, the last one was before public release, we'd be here all day), but the devs cover a few of the more recent changes as the stream goes on. First off, we have the new Reine pixel lobby (with music!) which the devs run around in for the first 20 or so minutes of the video.0:41 - Aaron Stavely, the new dev, is introduced! His job is to manage the dev team and make sure they're supported and on track.3:15 - This lobby is the first full example of the work done by the newly hired pixel artist. She's also been working on the story mode, which the team will delve into later. This is the point in the video where they start walking around and showing the lobby off.4:13 - The team reveals the hidden location of the salt mines in this lobby.4:33 - They enter the salt mines, which includes new tiles, a new layout, and...5:14 - ...a SPOOKY new fight transition!8:02 - The predators have supers now! Which, as Nappy quickly finds out, gives them the ability to BM.8:39 - Further updates to the salt mines will drop before 1.0 release.9:21 - Matchmaking has been added, and you can queue for it while in the pixel lobby, as well as pretty much anywhere else in the game.10:19 - You probably won't be able to enter the lobby buildings in Reine, but the plan is to have little quips pop up when you interact with them, as if there's someone on the other side.10:57 - Snowball fights aren't currently implemented, but fun little mini games like that are still on the to-do list.11:18 - Aaron's waifu is Oleander. This is very important information that needed to be timestamped. Yep.12:21 - Tianhuo activates her level 2, which shows us the new UI element, the install timer!12:53 - Tian, Oleander and Paprika all have install timers for their level 2s, and Paprika gets a little counter to display how many gifts she still has in her picnic basket. Oh, and before I forget, they also show off the new graphics for Velvet's super during this fight.14:16 - The team is at the stage where they can add more polish. They've added a "pick up fruit" indicator to Pap's gifts, and they plan on adding a similar icon for when Pap is standing over her picnic basket to show you can pull something from it.14:19 - The casual Rank-Up system is in. You get bonus XP if you complete certain criteria, like if you play/win against someone who is a significantly better rank than you, or if you win with a perfect, etc.20:00 - The team shows off the feature of training with other players in the pixel lobby. You can mess around in the options as you play without pausing the person you're training with.21:50 - Arizona's super level 1 and 2 have been given some love in the animation department, and you can see them in action here.22:51 - The team shows off the tutorial mode a little bit, for the sake of those who haven't yet seen it. The tutorial is nice and in-depth, but it also contains a bunch of little jokes and Easter eggs.29:16 - The pixel lobby stage (Reine, the Prairie, etc) is tied to the server. People will be able to see which is which so they can play in the part of Fœnum that they want. I'm going to assume that people hosting servers will be able to pick which stage they use.30:44 - The team is willing to have a look at making it more clear when the pips of magic in Velvet's meter are full and when they aren't.31:40 - The team has finished showing off stuff that is already in the game and starts teasing future stuff. Starting with, you guessed it... STORY MODE! The moment we've all been waiting for! The section they're playing is a snippet from Arizona's story mode, and it involves her travelling along the beaten path in the Prairie. Right away we get some new UI stuff, an example of how the story is being told through the little dialogue boxes, a SUPER CUTE little animation of Arizona hopping into some water, and of course, some new music! Lots of stuff still subject to change, but it's a hell of a taster. If you're interested in the lore, you may as well just watch this bit in its entirety.32:32 - A new feature that hasn't been seen yet. In the story mode, you can jump off ledges and swim in water!33:19 - Arizona tries to be anti-social, gets called out on it by a new NPC. Her name is Madison. She a cow.33:42 - Arizona chats to Madison. This is a great section to watch if you want to see some of the dialogue in action, and get a taste of the game's sense of humor.35:04 - Poor young cow commits multiple suicides. Tragic. 37:00 - An example of how you can use things like Ari's stomp during the non-fighting parts of the story mode. A few basic bits of gameplay to keep things interesting between fights and dialogue.37:30 - Spooky new cave music!38:10 - Landing after falling as Ari works in the same way as her stomp does.38:52 - More new music! This one is a tense pre-battle theme.39:03 - Them's Sneakin' Cows40:03 - Sometimes an enemy won't just be an enemy. It might be multiple enemies, or it could be an enemy with modified stats.41:00 - You can find hats and things in story mode that can be used in the pixel lobbies, and you can also wear them in story mode itself. They probably won't have effects in story mode, but it's something the team is willing to explore.42:30 - The salt will act as a soft currency, there will be some NPCs, a few of them hidden, that you can trade with in order to get hats and things. There will be no hard currency or lootboxes.44:33 - There will be hats that are only available to find in story mode, and there will also be bonus bosses. Some of the bosses will be "one of the fighters you currently have." Apparently people who play BlazBlue will know what that means. I don't play BlazBlue, so if anyone knows what is being implied here, let me know.45:18 - Backer stuff is still in the works. It'll be ready for 1.0 release.48:04 - The team moves on from story mode and shows off Arizona's WIP Level 3 super. They talk for a while about their animation process.48:45 - For all characters other than Pom, they've done some work on animating their "thrown" state when hit by Ari's super. They show those off here (except for Tian, she's done but not in this particular file). Some top notch faces here.53:00 - Level 3 inputs will be as simple as the team can make them, nothing too crazy.54:12 - Level 3s that hit raw will probably do a crap load of damage. But in a combo, they'll scale pretty heavily, more so than the other supers. A better use of 3 super bars is to use level 1s and 2s. Level 3 is more for spectacle than for practicality.1:02:02 - Startup for level 3s will depend on the character. Not every level 3 is going to be a direct attack. At least one of them will be an install.1:03:09 - Dev matches start.1:04:17 - Aaron explains his plans for future TFH videos. His next one might be a basic breakdown of the game's combo system. He'll be posting his videos to the forum, and he'll be looking for feebdack. He's going to hold off on the character specific videos until after 1.0 because of how often the characters get changed. No sense making a video on a character who will be pointedly different in the next few weeks.1:14:10 - Updating the character portraits in the main fight UI is on the list of things to change.1:14:38 - I love how they keep defaulting to idly sliding around on the ice whenever they enter the pixel lobby. This is why polish is so important. It may seem like a small thing, but you'd miss it if it was gone.1:15:31 - 1.0 Release is coming this year. Guaranteed. It'll come with the story mode prologue and the Arizona chapter, with the other story mode chapters releasing in the following months for free.

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed the recap! I tried to refrain from the butt jokes and general silliness this time around for the sake of all the new people, but I'm sure that standard is going to slip the more of these that come out. So look forward to that! See you next stream!